Eating a keto diet could help the tens of millions of Americans who suffer from depression, according to researchers.
The diet, popular with body builders, has the ability to slash symptoms of depression by 70 percent in under three months – reducing 20 percent more symptoms than current treatments, such as therapy and medication.
It’s unclear how the diet fights the condition, but 16 Ohio State University students suffering from depression saw their mental health improve nearly three-fold when sticking to keto.
Their performance on cognitive tests also improved and all but one of the students lost weight, a pilot study published Tuesday found. Weight loss and better academic performance have previously been tied to improved mental health.
“There is more science yet to do, but because there is evidence of a benefit, expanding accessibility to a well-formulated ketogenic diet as an augmentation to treatment for depression is something to think about,” Dr. Jeff Volek, a professor of human sciences at the school, said in a statement.
The keto -- or ketogenic -- diet is an approach characterized by high-fat and low-carbohydrate intake, aiming to facilitate weight loss, enhance mental clarity, and boost energy levels, according to the National Library of Medicine.
For college students, more than 40 percent of whom report experiencing depression symptoms, using the diet could be a more personalized approach to an often debilitating condition.
The number of American adults who had experienced a major depressive episode was the highest among people between the ages of 18 and 25 in 2021, according to federal health data.
“There is a need for finding ways of helping students on a large scale. And nutrition is one way we can do that,” Dr. Ryan Patel, a psychiatrist in Ohio State’s Office of Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service, explained.
The researchers hope to better understand the link between keto and improved symptoms of depression through further study and a larger clinical trial.
But, this isn’t the first study that has linked eating the keto diet to reduced symptoms of mental illness. Last year, a Stanford Medicine clinical trial found the diet could help to improve the psychiatric conditions of people leaving with serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
"The participants reported improvements in their energy, sleep, mood and quality of life," Dr. Shebani Seth, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, said then. "They feel healthier and more hopeful."
During the keto diet, the body switches out its primary energy source from blood sugar to ketones.
Ketones are acids that the body makes when it’s using energy from fat. Making too many can make the blood toxic, but sticking to a safe level below 3 millimoles per liter can help build muscle, improve blood sugar, and slash appetite, according to Healthline.
One avenue researchers are continuing to explore is what happens when we cut back on carbs and focus on protein and fat.
Dr. Georgia Ede, a psychiatrist in Massachusetts, told NPR last January that giving our bodies a different fuel source could bring parts of the "brain back online that may have been stuttering."
